The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-14
BLUNDERS OF PARENTS.
ELLIS MISTAKE IN NOT RESTRAIN
ING HIS SONS.


People to the Defense of the Youth
of the Country Errors of Some Fa-
nous Men in Rearing Their Children.
BROOKLYN, Nov. 13.--The weekly publica-
tion of DR.. Talmages sermons is beyond par
allel. Beside the English-spealSing nations,
including Australia and New Zealand, the
sermons are regularly translated into the
languages of Germany, France, Italy, Den
mark, Norway, Russia and India. The
gentlemen having in charge the publication
of these sermons inform us that i'll this coun-
try, every week, thirteen million six hun
dred thousand copies of the entire sermon
are printed, and about four million in other
lands, making over seventeen million per
week. A similar arrangement is now being
made for the publication of DR.. Talmage's
Friday evening talks.
The subject of the sermon to-day was
Parental Blunders," and the text was l.
Samuel iv. IS: HE fell from off the seat
backward by the side of the gate, and his
neck brake, and he died; for he was an old
man, and heavy" DIR. Talmage said:
This is the end of long story Of parental
neglect. Judge Eli was good man, but he
let his two boys, Hophni and Phinehas, do
as they pleased, and through over-indul
gence they went to ruin. The blind old
Judge, ninety-eight years of age, is seated
at the gate waiting for the news of an inn
portant battle in which his two sons were
at the front An express is coming with
tidings from the battle. This blind nonage-
marian puts his hand behind his ear, and
listens, and cries: What meaneth the
noise of this tumult" An excited messen-
ger, all out of breath with the speed, said
TO him: Our army is defeated. The
sacred chest, called the ark is captured,
and your sons are dead on the fieldn No
wonder the father tainted and expired
| The domestic tragedy in which these two
| sons were the tragedians had finished its
| fifth and last act she fell from off the
seat backward by the side of the gate, and
his neck brake, and he died; for he was an
old man, and heavy.n
Eli had made an awful mistake in regard
to his children. The Bible distinctly says:
His sons made themselves vile and he re-
strained them not" Oh, the ten thousand
mistakes in rearing children-mistakes of
| parents, mistakes of teachers i'll day school
and Sabbath classes, mistakes which we all
make. Will it not be useful to consider
them?
This country is going to be conquered by
! a great army, compared with which that of
Baldwin the First, and Xerxes, and Alexan-
der, and Grant, and Lee, all put together,
were in numbers insignificant. They will
| capture all our pulpitS, StorehouseS, facto-
ries, and halls of legislation, all our ship
| ping, all our wealth, and all our honors.
| They will take possession of all authority,
! from the United States Presidency down to
| the humblest cOnStabuiary-of everything
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
They are on the march now, and they halt
neither day nor night They will soon be
here, and all the present active population
of this country must surrender and give
way. | refer to the great army of children
| Whether they shall take possession of every
| thing for good or for bad depends upon the
| style of preparation through which they
pass ON their way from cradle to throne
| Cicero acknowledges he kept i'll his desk
collection Of prefaceS for books, which pre-
faces he could at any time attach to any
| thing he wanted to publish for himself or
| others; and all parents and teachers have
all prepared the preface of every young life
under their charge, and not only
! the preface, but the appendix, whether
| the volume be a poem or a
farce Families. and schools, and Legisla-
lures are in our day busily engaged in dis
cussing what is the best mode Of educating
| children. Before this question almost every
| other dwindles into inSignificance while de-
| fare of governments and ages eternal.
| Macaulay tells of the war which Frederick
| the Second, made against Queen Maria
| Theresa And one day she appeared before
the august Diet, wearing mourning for her
father, and held up in her arms before them
her child, the Archduke. This so wrought
upon the officers and deputies of the people,
that with half drawn swords they broke
forth in the war cry: "Let us die for our
Queen, Maria Theresa" So, this morning,
realizing that the boy of to-day is to be the
ruler of the future tine popular sovereign, |
hold him before the American people to
arouse their enthusiasm in his behalf, and
to evoke their oath for his defense, his edu
cation, and his sublime destiny.
If parent, you will remember when you
were aroused to these great responsibilities,
and when you found that you had not done
all required after you had admired the tiny
hands, and the glossy hair, and the bright
eyes that lay in the cradle. You suddenly re
membered that that hand would yet be raised
to bless the world with its benediction, or to
smite it with a curse In Ariosto'S great
| poem there is a character called Ruggierd,
who has q shield of insufferable splendor,
but il is kept yelled, save on certain occa-
sions, and when uncovered it startled and
overwhelmed its beholder, who before had
no suspicion of its brightness. My hope to-
day is to recover the destiny of your child
or student, about which you may have no
especial appreciation, and fash upon you the
splendors of its immortal nature Behold
the shield and the sword of its coming con-
flict.
| propose in this discourse to set forth
what [ consider to be some of the errors
prevalent in the training of children.
First remark that many err in TOO
great severity or too great leniency of fam
| ily government. Between parental tyranny
and ruinous laxativeness of discipline there
| is medium Sometimes the father errs on
one side, and the mother on the other side.
Good family government is all important.
Anarchy and misrule in the domestic circle
! is the forerunner of anarchy and misrule in
the state What "A repusive spectacle is II
home without order or discipline, disobedi
ence and impudence, and anger and false
hood lifting their horI'id front in the place
which should be consecrated to all that is
holy, and peaceful and beautiful. In the
attempt TO avoid all this, and
| bring the children under proper
laws and regulations, parents have
sometimes carried themselves with great
rigor. John Howard, who was merciful to
the prisons and lazarettos, was merciless TO
the treatment of his children, John Milton
knew everything, but how TO train his
| family. Severe and unreasonable was he
| in his carriage toward them. he made
| them read TO him in four or five languages,
but would not allow them TO learn any of
them for he said that one tongue was
enough for woman. Their reading was